Portable electronic products, such as radios, cellular telephones, and the like, generally require batteries for supplying power to the product. In many instances, multiple battery cells are needed to meet the power requirements of a product. One common battery cell configuration comprises individual cylindrical battery cells which are vertically stacked, making end-to-end (i.e., lead-to-lead) contact with one another. In lieu of placing multiple individual battery cells into a product, it is often desirable to combine individual cells to form a single battery package. For example, rechargeable (secondary) cells are customarily combined into a single unit for convenience. When cylindrical cells are to be vertically-stacked and combined to form a single battery package it is critical that the structural integrity of the package be maintained, in order to avoid, for example, cell shifting and loss of electrical contact between adjacent cell leads. Exisiting methods of combining multiple cylindrical cells have proved to be inadequate. For example, heat-shrinkable plastic sleeving which has been used to package cells is hightly susceptible to splitting or tearing upon impact when a product incorporating the battery package is dropped.
For the foregoing reasons, it would be desirable to have a battery package in which multiple cylindrical battery cells may be combined in a vertically-stacked configuration without the deleterious effects which are common with existing packaging methods.